Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Are you wondering how to build an email list to promote your book? Here are 6 easy steps for you to get started building an email list of devoted fans so you can sell more books.

If I was starting over today as a new author, I would start collecting email addresses even before I wrote the book. That may sound premature but today’s book publishing environment is more competitive than ever. More important than your book’s quality, book reviews, or even cover art is the ability for you to get the word out to people interested in your work.

Email is the cheapest and most effective way to reach them. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and all the social media toys get more ink, but it's email that continues to reach people most effectively.

How to Get Started Building Your Email List . . .

You don't need to know a lot about technology to start collecting email addresses today. Here are 6 easy steps you can use to plant your flag online and begin building an audience for your work:

Step 1 – Brand Yourself with a Good Domain Name.

Give some thought to how you want to brand yourself. Your domain name might simply be the title of your book, it might be your own name, or it might be a reference to a concept or character that you use in your books.

Be careful about wedding yourself permanently to a narrow topic area or specific book title, however. Over time, your interests may expand and you can find yourself limited by a domain name that only references your first book or your own name.

For example, ScottFox.com was my primary website for years after the publication of my first book, Internet Riches, in 2006. Now that I'm on my third book, I'm switching over to a broader branding strategy and using the name of my third book, ClickMillionaires.com, as my main website. I made this switch deliberately to take the focus off of me. To attract more readers, it’s better to refer instead to the ideas and services from my books that interest my readers most.

Step 2 – Grab Your Usernames in Social Media.

After picking your domain name, use it to begin branding yourself in social media. This means going to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, GoodReads, and any relevant forums to register a free user account using that brand name.

This step is important so that later when you begin marketing the book, you can post across these platforms using a consistent brand name. Each of these social networks and websites also offers you additional places to post your email sign-up offers.

Step 3 – Include Your URL and Special Offers in Your Book.

Don’t miss the opportunity in your book to promote your other content and services. For example, your URL should be on the front and back covers.

Also try adding a Special Offer for your readers inside. Promise them bonus chapters, a Q&A interview with you, additional back story on your characters, related art, or other bonuses if they sign up for your email list.

Step 4 - Set Up at Least a One-Page Website.

To start collecting email addresses, you need at least a simple webpage. This page doesn't have to be fancy, but you need some place online that potential readers can visit to sign up for your new email list.

If you don't already have a website, get started with WordPress, Weebly, TypePad, or any of the many easy-to-use, point-and-click website builders available online today.

Step 5 - Sign Up with Aweber or Other Email Provider.

Aweber is an email services company that can help you collect email addresses and manage them efficiently. For $19/month you get access to a powerful system that you can use to collect email addresses, manage subscribes/unsubscribes, and even automatically send out follow-up messages to your audience. Register for the service and copy/paste the signup code into your new webpage to allow your visitors to register for your new email list when they visit. Check out Aweber by clicking here: http://www.aweber.com/?381604 for a special offer.

Step 6 - Promote Your New List and/or Special Offer in Social Media.

Remember those social media accounts we set up earlier? Now that you have something to say that benefits your audience, you can put them to use.

Post news about your new email list on Facebook and the other networks. Friendly messages there can let people who come looking for you know that they can sign up for your emails. Be sure to mention the special offer you developed so that they have an incentive to sign up.

In fact, you may not want to promote the email list itself as much as the reward. Simply sharing the link to your page that describes any type of free bonus can attract traffic. Then ask people for the small favor of signing up for your email list in order to get their reward.

Conclusion

I know it may sound ambitious for you to begin collecting email addresses even before your book is available. But, since you are likely spending some time online anyway, the sooner you have a place to point people that you meet there, the sooner you can start building the email list that will be critically important for you to be able to reach your fans and sell your book.

All of these email marketing topics are worth lots more discussion. If you have found these beginning tips helpful, I'd be happy to help you further. In fact, I have a whole community of friendly Internet entrepreneurs waiting to meet you. Visit us at http://www.ClickMillionaires.com to join my Internet business coaching forum for free.

Forum membership is free with purchase of my latest book, Click Millionaires: Work Less, Live More with an Internet Lifestyle Business You Love, or you can use the sign-up code bookmarket to gain access and start learning more about how you can sell more books online to become a Click Millionaire yourself.

About the Author

Scott Fox is the host of the popular lifestyle entrepreneur coaching community ClickMillionaires.com. He is a serial Internet start-up executive who found success online building multimillion dollar websites for start-ups, celebrities, and a Fortune 500 corporation.

Now a blogger, podcaster, and bestselling author of three books, including the new Click Millionaires: Work Less, Live More with an Internet Lifestyle Business You Love, you can visit his http://www.ClickMillionaires.com website for free email newsletters and to join the friendly coaching forum there for free.

Amazon Bestseller Campaign: The Inside Secrets to Becoming a Real Bestselling Author on Amazon.com: http://www.bookmarket.com/amazon.htm - You can create a true bestseller on Amazon using the step-by-step guidelines included in this multimedia course. $97

Who's the reigning Indie Book Queen of the moment? Colleen Hoover, of course. Ms. Hoover is now topping all the self-published book charts and cracking the New York Times bestsellers list in the process....

I just wrote these books less than a year ago, so I never tried to get them traditionally published. In all honesty, I wrote them for fun and never thought of myself as an author. I uploaded them to Amazon so friends and family could read them, which is why I made them free the first week.

I never in my wildest dreams thought they would become bestsellers. If I had this goal while writing them, I probably would have freaked out and not finished them. It's honestly insane how this has all sort of snowballed. It's been amazing, to say the least....

When I first put my books out, I took advantage of Amazon's KDP program. I really think the KDP program is a great way to get your book into the hands of readers. I had over 4,000 downloads in two days. I can't think of any other marketing tool that can get your actual book into that many hands in such a short amount of time.

After that, it was a whole lot of word of mouth. Of course I marketed to my Facebook friends, but at the time I had 10 Twitter friends and only 2 followers.

I spent the first three months after writing Slammed working on the sequel, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the internet. After putting out the sequel, I was getting about 10 downloads a day of both books. Those ten turned into 12, then 14, and so on and so on.

By the end of March, a blogger at Maryse.net read the book and blogged about it. She's got a huge following and the books received over 100 downloads that day. Since then, the sales have steadily climbed. I've noticed when a blogger reviews it, especially bloggers with a huge following like Maryse, it really makes a big impact on sales.

I didn't really focus on getting the books in the hands of bloggers in the beginning because I was really new at this and wasn't sure what worked. Now that I know, you can bet I'll be sending out those ARC's of my next release.

Amazon Bestseller Campaign: The Inside Secrets to Becoming a Real Bestselling Author on Amazon.com: http://www.bookmarket.com/amazon.htm - You can create a true bestseller on Amazon using the step-by-step guidelines
included in this multimedia course. Was $297, but now only $97.

New York Times Bestseller Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/newyorktimesbestsellers.htm
- This program offers unprecedented access to the most up-to-date book
marketing resources and insider tips to help any author create a New York Times bestselling book. Was $297, but now only $97.

Here is a blog post from one of the more active members ofThe Book Marketing Network, Neil Ostroff, author of Drop Out and other novels:

What a difference a month makes for my sales. From a lackluster July to a booming August. Sales of Drop Out have skyrocketed over the last week as well as my other adult books. Right now I’m on par to break my all time sales month of last January.

Strangely though, my sci-fi/fantasy books are not selling well this month. Perhaps, kids are gearing up for school and losing interest in spending their endless summer reading fiction. I don’t know.

I do know that more and more people are buying ereaders whether adults or children. And how do I know this? Because everyone I know is buying one or plans on buying one. For an indie author, that’s music to my ears. I envision a day when millions of my books will be read (even if people get them free) and thousands of people will want to read my next works.

I know what everyone is thinking, ‘Why do it if you don’t get paid?’ I think for me, I’ve reached a level in writing where I am satisfied just knowing my stuff is out there for people to enjoy. I’ve gone the corporate route with publishing, had a New York agent, sent thousands of queries, proposals, and outlines to make a sale, and yet what gives me the most pride and joy is when someone emails me and tells me how much they enjoyed my work, not how much money I made off them. I think that is the ultimate reward for any artist: appreciation.

So, if I break my own sales record this month that would be amazing. If I don’t, that’s okay, too. I know that last month more than 6,000 of my books were downloaded, and to me, that’s pretty cool.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

According to Forbes magazine, here are the top-earning book authors during 2011:

James Patterson ($94 million)

Stephen King ($39 million)

Janet Evanovich ($33 million) ====>

John Grisham ($26 million)

Jeff Kinney ($25 million)

Bill O'Reilly ($24 million)

Nora Roberts ($23 million)

Danielle Steel ($23 million)

Suzanne Collins ($20 million)

Dean Koontz ($19 million)

J. K. Rowling ($17 million)

George R. R. Martin ($15 million)

Stephenie Meyer ($14 million)

Ken Follett ($14 million)

Rick Riordan ($13 million)

Some interesting points to note:

1. There is only one nonfiction author in the top 15: Bill O'Reilly.

2. The list is dominated by authors who have been around 20 years or more: Patterson, King, Evanovich, Grisham, Roberts, Steel, Koontz, Martin, and Follett.

3. Almost all of the authors have had at least one movie made from their novels. Most have had five or ten movies or TV shows based on their novels.

4. Earnings estimates were based not only on book sales but also sales of movie and TV rights.

5. I suspect there are a number of nonfiction authors who have made more in the past year than many on this list, but Forbes has not counted them. I'm not sure why. My guess is that Forbes did not include income from speaking, merchandising rights, websites (other than Pottermore), ancillary sales, subsidiary rights, etc.

6. Let this list of top-earning book authors inspired you in your writing and marketing!

Amazon Bestseller Campaign: The Inside Secrets to Becoming a Real Bestselling Author on Amazon.com: http://www.bookmarket.com/amazon.htm - You can create a true bestseller on Amazon using the step-by-step guidelines
included in this multimedia course. Was $97, but now only $17.

New York Times Bestseller Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/newyorktimesbestsellers.htm
- This program offers unprecedented access to the most up-to-date book
marketing resources and insider tips to help any author create a New York Times bestselling book. Was $97, but now only $17.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Note: The following post is written by Brian Feinblum, Chief Marketing Officer, Planned Television Arts.

“Dad, you look like you got out of jail.”

Those were the words I wasn’t expecting to hear out of my six-year-old son, unsolicited. He
made me laugh. It’s funny to see someone, unfiltered, just speak their
mind and blurt out whatever thought races to the surface. Maybe he’s
right.

I had just gotten a haircut. Ok, more of a scalping. It was
a buzz-cut, where the barber uses his electric clippers to mow down any
hair longer than a quarter-inch. I looked a little like a skinhead. All
that was missing was a scar on my cheek and a tattoo on my arm.

I
am not sure what my son knows of jail or the people who are sentenced
there but somehow he concluded from his limited life exposures and
experiences that I fit the profile of a convict. If you didn’t know what
a softie I am on the inside, you may judge my exterior, complete with a
goatee, as a tough guy.

My bulldog is the same way. She looks
like a junkyard dog who could appear to be threatening with her
snaggle-toothed glare, but in reality, she’s as rough and tough as a
stuffed animal. She’d probably lick an intruder and sellout to the first
snack tossed her way.

Looks can be deceiving.

We know to
never judge a book by its cover, and yet isn’t that what we do every
day? We judge how people look – their face, their body, their age, their
clothes, their appearance. We make snap judgments and never look back.

And
when it comes to books, many of us are drawn to cover images and
visuals. No matter how good the content of a book or one’s character is,
be sure to still make the best visual impression possible.

Otherwise, even those closest to you might think you just escaped from jail.

Amazon Bestseller Campaign: The Inside Secrets to Becoming a Real Bestselling Author on Amazon.com: http://www.bookmarket.com/amazon.htm - You can create a true bestseller on Amazon using the step-by-step guidelines
included in this multimedia course. Was $297, but now only $97.

New York Times Bestseller Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/newyorktimesbestsellers.htm
- This program offers unprecedented access to the most up-to-date book
marketing resources and insider tips to help any author create a New York Times bestselling book. Was $297, but now only $97.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Camera-ready copy – Mechanicals, photographs,
illustrations, and art fully ready for reproduction according to the technical
requirements of the printing process being used. In today’s world of
publishing, this would now refer to a PDF or Postscript file with the material
ready for printing. Also called finished art and reproduction
copy.

Hard mechanical – Paper and/or acetate made using paste-up
techniques. Also called an artboard, board,
or paste-up.

Mechanical – Camera-ready assembly of type, graphics, tables,
and other copy complete with instructions to the printer.

Soft mechanical – A file of type and other images assembled
using a computer. Generally a PDF or Postscript file. Also called an electronic
mechanical.

RadioPRGuy.com - "When you decide that you're ready to start dealing with radio stations directly, get Alex Carroll's program. His top radio show database, tapes of dealing with producers, and examples of actual talk shows will help you to become a radio talk show star." - John Kremer

About John Kremer

John Kremer is an expert on book publishing and book marketing. Besides being the owner of a publishing company (Open Horizons in Taos, New Mexico), he is the editor of the Book Marketing Tip of the Week newsletter.